Tag Archives: Cincinnati Pops

Saturday’s ‘Superheroes!’ Presentation by the Cincinnati Pops at Taft Theatre was more than I was expecting. I had looked forward to a replay of 2013’s amazing ‘Superheroes!’ concert, but instead found that the show had been refashioned into a full-blown musical, charting the adventures of heroes Conduktor and Rubáto, and villains Purrfect Pitch and Otto Tüün, as portrayed by members of the Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati. The plot had the heroes laying waste to the bad guys’ scheme to replace live music with electronic, and — as an aside — destroy the world with a phalanx of gigantic tuning forks. An origin story was tucked in there as well. Songs from Hercules, The Wiz, Newsies, and Hairspray were repurposed to help tell the story along with selections from the Pops’ original Superheroes! concert. Great fun to see the characters I co-created with Cincinnati Pops conductor John Morris Russell live onstage.

Many of the kids, and even parents, in the audience came dressed in their best superhero outfits, and conductor Russell and I had a great time meeting attendees and signing programs and masks for them afterward.

Many thanks to the Cincinnati Pops team and the Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati!

Check it out — I’ll be signing programs and copies of my Conduktor drawings after the Cincinnati Pops Lollipops “Superheroes” concert on June 10. The concert starts at 10:30 am, click the link for tickets!

The Cincinnati Pops Superhero characters are the co-creation of Cincinnati Pops Orchestra conductor John Morris Russell and myself. The occasion was the 2013 Cincinnati Pops “Superheroes!” concert, a program of superhero themes from movies and television (see the track listing on the CD cover after the jump!) and the subsequent CD recording of that concert.